What would canon!Rowan and Shadow!Rowan make of each other, if they ever met?
oooh, now that's an excellent question...
Assuming we fast-forward through the thirty-minute hissy fit and abject horror that another version of himself exists somewhere:
I think, once they both got past the general wariness and took a bit of time to get to know their differences, each Rowan would look at the other as if the other one were the better version of himself. if that makes sense?
like, Inky!Rowan would look at Shadow!Rowan and see so much strength, determination, and perseverance that he doesn't feel like he had during his time as Inquisitor (or even after). It's hard for him to imagine a version of himself that lost everything and everyone so young, and still went on to survive a decade of enslavement and then gets tasked with saving the world on top of it, and survived that too. (a lot of this is the same way he sees Varien, tbh.) He'd be almost envious that Shadow!Rowan is direct and focused in a way that Inky!Rowan is not, a la that Rook-esque quality of 'thinking in straight lines.' Maybe if he'd been more brash like Shadow!Rowan, maybe if he'd taken more initiative like Shadow!Rowan... maybe things would be different, y'know? Shadow!Rowan is a real leader. He's the boots on the ground making a difference at the human level. He's everything Inky!Rowan wished he could have been as Inquisitor, when he often felt like little more than a figurehead making pointless political decisions that didn't seem like they really helped anyone at all.
Meanwhile, Shadow!Rowan would look at Inky!Rowan and see somebody who just had so much more time to settle into who he is, grow his skills, and prepare for the life that was ahead of him. He'd be equal parts envious and enraged that Inky!Rowan went on to make the exact same mistake that cost him everything (re: failing to save Clan Lavellan) and it would feel almost impossible to reconcile that a version of himself could do that. ("Aren't I smarter? Wouldn't I have known better? How could I still have failed even with the entire fucking Inquisition at my disposal?" It's a whole bag of worms that makes him see himself—and his verse's Inquisitor Varien—very differently.) That aside, he'd see... well, all of the same things Inky!Rowan sees in him, just different. Someone who's more skilled, more level-headed, more grounded in his faith and his culture. Shadow!Rowan knows for a fact he could never have led the Inquisition. He isn't stable enough to shoulder that kind of responsibility, and he knows he couldn't have handled the Chantry stripping away his identity to make him into something he isn't. His slavers did the same to him, and Shadow!Rowan still feels almost entirely disconnected from so many parts of himself. To his eyes, for Inky!Rowan to still be proudly and openly Dalish after everything he'd been through is a feat that Shadow!Ro could never accomplish.
Now, Inky!Rowan would laugh in Shadow!Rowan's face if he ever said any of that out loud. As we well know around here, those are all of the things Inky!Rowan thinks he isn't—strong-willed, secure, skilled—and yet his own alter-ego sees them anyway. I think it plays into the universal-Rowan overarching theme of never being able to see his own strengths or redeeming qualities, but the two versions of himself each meeting the other might shed some light on a few things. They're both him, just under different circumstances. Neither one of them would have survived all that they did if those qualities weren't there from the start. I said a while ago in a different ask that his traits are generally all the same, it's just that each Rowan applies them differently. Maybe they'd both eventually come to see that.
And some misc. things they'd both think about each other:
Inky!Rowan would be so weirded out by himself without vallaslin, meanwhile Shadow!Rowan would be like, "Sylaise, really?"
Shadow!Rowan would take one look at the red scarf and get more emotional than he'd like to admit. And assuming he's wearing his SD jammies or sth, Inky!Rowan would take one look at the red sash and know exactly what that's about.
Both of them realizing that there is no timeline in which he has a good sense of fashion
god the conversation they'd have about his motherrrrrrrr lmao
Inky!Rowan: "huh I forgot what I looked like with two arms"
Shadow!Rowan: "well i guess i know what i'll look like when i'm old" ("I am not OLD it's called going PREMATURELY GREY")
Shadow!Rowan would think it's pretty wild that Inky!Rowan is an author, bc he doesn't believe he'd have the knack for that sort of thing
Shadow!Rowan would be shocked and appalled that Inky!Rowan is with Dorian fucking Pavus
Inky!Rowan: "yeah?? Well look at who YOU'RE dati—oh. oh. can I get a piece of that actually"
